Too much zucchini? Fritters offer a solution

Last summer an old friend vacationed in Maine and saw this column. Nancy d’Estang of Noank, Conn., thought it would be nice to send along a recipe to share, and so included one for zucchini fritters with red pepper puree. How she knew that Mainers are likely to end up with too many zukes, I haven’t a clue (wink), but we are getting into that season and this recipe is a good way to gobble up some. The best way to avoid too much zucchini is, of course, not to plant every seed in the packet, and to pick on them when they are little. If you let them grow as big as they want to grow, then you will be outnumbered and it is a hopeless cause.

As usual, I tinkered with the recipe. The original says to add eight ounces of small to medium shrimp, chopped up, and you can do that if you want. Maybe you are one of those people who have some frozen Maine shrimp in their freezer, an ideal shrimp for this dish. If I wanted this for a luncheon or even as an appetizer, I’d be inclined to use the shrimp, but I was thinking more along the lines of a vegetable side dish. And nothing says you can’t use yellow summer squash in this recipe or a combination of the two.

We grow most of our own vegetables but I have a weakness for red peppers, and try as I might, I can’t get them to ripen – it is just too cool at night. So I buy them to chop into all sorts of stir fries and salads, and to have as a dipping vegetable. I don’t have much patience with the charring and skinning procedure required for the puree that follows. My friend Bonnie in Lincolnville is a champ at this – and makes a divine red pepper hors d’oeurvre to put on crostini. She just gets those peppers all peeled and seeded, slices them into neat little strips, peels and chops a few garlic cloves and nestles it all in olive oil, and she is all set. It is really wonderful. I think a little of that pureed would be a yummy sauce for these little fritters, too.

Even though instructions for charring red peppers say to put them under the broiler, it is in fact, easier to do it over a gas flame, if you have a gas stove. Unfortunately, the fire alarm in our house which can’t tell the difference between roasting red peppers (and toasting English muffins, either for that matter,) and a genuine conflagration, gets all hysterical. So I use canned peeled red peppers.

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Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

1 cup canned roasted peppers

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried basil (or several leaves of fresh)

salt and pepper to taste

Put everything into a blender or food processor and puree. Set aside.

Zucchini Fritters

Serves four to six as a vegetable side dish

? pound of zucchinis or yellow squash (3 small, or 2 medium)

1 egg

2 tablespoons of flour

2 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon of finely chopped onion or scallion

? pound of small raw shrimp, chopped (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Grate the zucchinis and sprinkle them lightly with a little salt. Drain them in a colander. Beat together the egg, milk and flour. Squeeze the squash to remove the excess water, and put it into a bowl. Add the egg mixture, the oregano and onion, and mix gently until the squash is coated. Fold in the shrimp if you use that. Put a little olive or vegetable oil on a frying pan (or use a nonstick pan) and heat it until a drop of water sizzles. Put the fritter batter on the pan in tablespoon size dollops, flatten them slightly and cook for about two minutes per side or until they are browned and a little crispy. Put on a paper towel, and keep warm until all the batter is fried. Serve with the red pepper sauce on or under them, and-or put the sauce in a sauce dish on the table.